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Swine flu hands vax industry $7B windfall

Swine flu may be sickening millions of people, but it's adding a healthy hue to the financial performance of the vaccine industry. The Boston Globe reports that the pandemic is delivering a $7 billion windfall to manufacturers.

They're using some of that avalanche of cash to invest in new technologies, while benefiting from what they've learned about fast-track vaccine development. That new knowledge and technology will be put to good use as the vaccine industry is projected to double in size in seven years. Scientia Advisors estimates that total vaccine revenue will jump from $16 billion in 2007 to $35 billion in 2014.

"With a pandemic like this, the upside for us is clearly significant,'' Andrin Oswald, chief executive of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, tells the Globe. "The quicker we can ramp up our volume, the better it will be for people in the United States and around the world.''